Mr. LaPore,I was a fellow student of Austin's, and I would just like to take a moment to express my deepest condolences. UChicago is a sadder place without your son, that much I can guarantee. I wouldn't say that Austin and I were close friends--we both lived in Shorey for two years and actually our apartments were on the same block--but we never hung out on weekends or got lunch. We're both very different people: I'm a philosophy major, we had different extracurricular interests, etc. You get the picture. But Austin and I had a lot more in common than one might suspect, because we both absolutely adore baseball. Whenever we got together, baseball was all we talked about, and he was my favorite person to talk/watch ball with. He knew so much more about the sport than I could ever fathom, and I genuinely appreciated him for it. He taught me a great deal about the game in the three years that I knew him. The last time I saw him was about two weeks ago, at Shorey's last intramural sports game, which was a softball playoff game. Austin and I were both terrible, but we both really love the game so much that we couldn't help but to play. Only four people from Shorey showed up, and we were two of them. Though we lost something like 14-0, I think we both had a blast. So I just wanted to let you know that, in these difficult times, someone who wasn't particularly close to your son but who knew him well enough is grieving with you. He really was a tremendous guy. I know he's in a better place now, and hopefully he'll say "hello" to Christy Mathewson for me. Sincerely,Ben Silver